At the end of Simon Treen’s tutored tasting, at Skinner’s Old Ale House, in Truro, yesterday, he asked for a quick show of hands on which of the five beers he presented were people’s favourite. It wasn’t a scientific test, and indeed the...

Sunday in Bude – glorious autumn sun, rolling waves, but it’s a different sort of barrel I’m here for. It’s the middle of the afternoon and the Barrel at Bude micropub is filled to capacity. Acoustic singer guitarist Michael Guild is captivating the drinkers, but the...

It was a stormy Saturday afternoon. Storm Brian was coming in and, as it happens, would not have too much impact on our part of west Cornwall, but the prospect was enough to deter me from a second visit to the excellent Falmouth Beer Festival, where I had enjoyed...

To The Front, in Falmouth, where brewer Simon Treen and his wife, Sarah, are revealing the new line-up of Treen’s Brewery beers after the initial launch of the Cuckoo and Cloud Cuckoo brews in 2016. It was busy. By ‘eck it was busy. But then Treen’s...

The new edition of CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide is published today, and beer lovers and publicans alike will be flicking through the pages to see who’s included. Here, in no order, and with no prejudice against those who are also listed in the book, is my top...

There’s an age-old tradition in my old local newspaper game of starting stories about summer events with the words: “Rain failed to dampen the spirits of visitors to…” This could be said about Verdant Brewing Co’s Little Summer Beer Bash yesterday. But not only did...

It took less than an hour for one perennial question to rear its head as Cornwall CAMRA members enjoyed a tour of mild-serving pubs in Falmouth. “It’s not very dark for a mild, is it?” Oh, if I had a pound for every time. The beer in question: Rye Ruby Red (5% ABV),...

Front, father and son Paul and Chris Stephens, descendants of Hayle brewer Christopher Ellis. Behind, beer writer Darren Norbury and Cornish Arms licensee Claire Williams There was a time when every village or town would have had at least one local brewery, perhaps...

Beers made with foraged foods and herbs. And historic fruits, like Cornish apple variety Queenie, and the famous Kea plums, from near Truro. These are the ingredients from a local wild larder that make Stuart Woodman’s Wild Ales stand out from the crowd, and they’re...

I’ve been pretty convinced for some time that the best beer and food match I’ve come across is fish and chips and St Austell Brewery’s coriander noted wheat beer, Clouded Yellow. We’d set up a beer festival, fish and chips had been sent out for and there happened to...

Unlike some of you lucky people up the line in London and the big regional cities, the words ‘tap takeover’ appear to us as a rare beacon of opportunity down here in Cornwall, so I was eager to hop on one of our new wifi- and USB-enabled double deckers last night for...